Blackstone's Tower: The English Law School - College of Social ...

Legal Scholarship and the Roles of the Jurist
lishers' catalogues relating to my discipline. The overwhelming
impression is of a somewhat bewildering pluralism. The areas of
enquiry, methods, perspectives and audiences all seem to be much
more diverse than they were 10, let alone 20 or 30 years ago. For
example, the catalogue of new publications in law from Oxford
University Press, which arrived as I was writing this, included major
works in legal philosophy, new series on Criminology and Sociolegal
studies, three new books on European Community Law, new
editions of orthodox and not so orthodox expository texts, "an
evaluative study" of the principles underlying the criminal justice
system, critical studies of the English intelligence services and Australian
drug laws, several works on legal history and international
law, and a reissue of a major work on Roman Imperial Rescripts
between A.D. 193 and 305, complete with a high density diskette
containing a Palingenesia (reconstruction) of 2,609 rescripts. 19 This
is only a sample from a much longer list that is hardly symptomatic
of dull uniformity.
As to quantity and commitment to research, the available empirical
evidence comparing law with other subjects generally supports
the view that, except for research training, law schools have
developed a research culture that in respect of commitment and
productivity is not significantly different from other disciplines,
especially in the humanities and social sciences. This is hardly surprising,
since in most universities the criteria for appointment and
promotion, especially to Readerships and Chairs, are generally uniform
across disciplines. 20
LAW AS A PARTICIPANT-ORIENTED DISCIPLINE
Law is, of course, part of the practical world of affairs and, as
such, is an applied discipline. It is not surprising that a great deal
of legal education is devoted to preparing people for legal practice
in a narrow sense. But we have seen that the law in action is much
wider than lawyers' action. 21 The Arthurs Report shows how the
potential audiences for scholarly writing can exert a strong gravitational
pull towards applied scholarship for the profession; it also
illustrates some of the varied ways in which such work can be of
practical value, for example, in policy-making and law reform, in
providing useful works of reference, in imposing order on the law
and in providing raw material for legal argument. Similarly academic
lawyers have the opportunity to participate in the legal
system in a variety of roles besides teaching and scholarship.
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